OCCUPYING OWNERSHIP 191 



the peasant, thanks to the savings he can make, can 

 easily go through the greatest crisis in agriculture. . . . 

 It will show you that the average production of wheat 

 has been so raised as to triple the bread supply of 

 France. . . . The peasant becomes more and more 

 the proprietor of the soil he cultivates, is one of the 

 most solid pillars on which social order rests, and his 

 savings constitute the financial power of France." 



The president goes on to state that this progress 

 is far from being finished, and after referring to the 

 vast increase which had taken place in stock and 

 other produce, he concludes by saying : " Our society 

 knows that the fortune of the country depends on 

 agricultural prosperity, while to increase the well-being 

 of all classes of the rural population is the surest 

 means for the Government to secure the stability of 

 our institutions and to increase the strength of the 

 nation."^ 



This is not an address on agriculture given by an 

 amateur to a debating society. It is the utterance of 

 an eminent rural economist to an association of the 

 first rank, composed of practical agriculturists and of 

 distinguished scientific men. One notable feature in 

 the address is that all classes of cultivators are reck- 

 oned of equal importance. If there is any difference 

 shown, it is in the form of extra consideration for 

 those classes which by our own agricultural societies 

 are left out of account altogether — namely, the labour- 

 ers and the small cultivators. 



Fortunately, we possess information by which the 



^ The address and the report itself should be read by all interested in 

 the subject, and specially by those prejudiced in favour of the landlord and 

 tenant system. They are published in pamphlet form by Chamerot, Rue 

 des Saints-Peres, Paris, and entitled "Discours de M. Tisserand, Pre'si- 

 dent de l;\^Socidt^ Nationale d'Agriculture." 



